3 important lessons were learned during our brief and incomplete time in Hue:

1. When it is raining, and you think, "We won't go tour the main sites today because tomorrow has to be better", you are being foolish. The weather can always get worse. Cloudy photos are better than none at all.

2. Those flimsy flip-flops that Clare did not bring because she scoffs at how impractical they are do serve a purpose other than kicking around on the beach, and protecting your feet from slime in hostel showers. They are actually for the times when you have to unexpectedly wade through flood water as you try to escape a city. More on this below.

3. As Ontarians, we take it for granted that extreme weather is typically not a phenomenon that we have to be concerned about. And that when you take off when the going gets tough, the locals do not have this luxury.

So Typhoon Damrey made landfall a few hundred kilometres south of Hue, and we mostly felt the effects of the rain, but luckily not the wind. The situation was very dire in Hoi An, where we had just come from. When we woke up on our second morning in Hue, we were stunned to see that our little side street had flooded, and was slowly reaching the bottom of the door. We had plane tickets to Hanoi scheduled for the next day, but decided we better try and get out before the situation worsened. So we quickly packed up our things and waded through knee deep water to the main street where we managed to share a taxi with some kind French tourists. Our taxi was fine getting to the airport, but we did see some buses stuck. After a lot of waiting and confusion, we did manage to buy new plane tickets, and fly to Hanoi safely. It felt terrible to leave the hotel, as the staff were so patient and helpful as we tried to change travel plans, while their own homes now had water situations they needed to contend with. We are grateful to be safe, and our thoughts are going out to everyone who has been affected so far by the storm.